1. Technical Field
Aspects of this document relate generally to processes and systems for fuel production from biomass sources.
2. Background Art
The derivation of fuels from biomass sources has been in long practice. For example, ethanol and biodiesel derived from biomass sources are becoming increasingly adopted as fuel sources in internal combustion engines. Conventional ethanol generation technology involves processing a starchy source material (such as a grain or vegetable) by converting the starch source to free glucose and fermenting the glucose with yeast that excretes significant amounts of ethanol. Conventional biodiesel generation technology involves processing a feedstock, such as vegetable oil, through a reaction process such as transesterification to produce biodiesel and a variety of other byproducts. Other processes have been developed to generate a variety of other fuel-related materials from biomass, including lubricants, fuel additives, and greases.
An example of a conventional ethanol production process may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,241, to Millichip entitled “Ethanol production by Zymomonas cultured in yeast-conditioned media,” issued Dec. 5, 1989, the contents of which are hereby incorporated entirely herein by reference.
An example of a conventional biodiesel generating process may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,965 to Foglia, et al., entitled “Production of biodiesel, lubricants and fuel and lubricant additives,” issued Feb. 3, 1998, the contents of which are hereby incorporated entirely herein by reference.